Finally jumping another hurdle and will see a massive bump in salary this year. However, don't really want to go overboard so want to keep how much I spend on a car limited until I buy a house.
What car would you get in the 50-60kish range? Maybe up to 70kish but don't want to go much over...
I've been looking at the Jaguar XF, BMW 5 series, Mercedes E-class coupe, and Porsche Boxster S as possibilities. Which would you recommend? Any others? I prefer smaller cars which is what makes me hesitant about the XF, 5-series and E-class, but also don't really need the power of something like a M3 considering I spend most of my time in gridlock traffic. Maybe wait for the Jaguar F-type but I'm also not a huge fan of convertibles and it's up in the air whether they will make a hardtop F-type?

Get a used E60 M5 in decent-to-good condition for $40K and use the other $20K for gas for the rest of the year.

What's wrong with an E91 wagon? It's actually the car I wish I owned - I have an E92 328xi Coupe that I very much wanted to trade in for the wagon when I had the kid... but they're more or less impossible to get here without getting raped.

He was tired of waiting to find one (he lives in the deep countryside) though I think he only really gave this car search like 2 weeks - I told him to go find an E60 535Xi sedan to test drive to see if he likes it (he was talking about definitely getting a 5er) and then pick a E61 535Xi wagon up off ebay with some sort of warranty remaining on it. The 535XiT as a used car is much better deal than the 3er, the 3ers are definitely overpriced as you said, and the 535 is much more car. Anyway, I don't think he'll even drive it that much, except for long road trips once every few months. My parents have always had some sort of wagon in their garage.

I was knocking about on some vintage car websites and you can pick up a 1998 Bently Turbo R for about £10k. If I were choosing between a 5 Series or something else it would be ard to pass up. £10k to buy and £20k to fuel, repair and maintain for 5 years.

I was knocking about on some vintage car websites and you can pick up a 1998 Bently Turbo R for about £10k. If I were choosing between a 5 Series or something else it would be ard to pass up. £10k to buy and £20k to fuel, repair and maintain for 5 years.

The Turbo R's seem immensely fussy and likely expensive to maintain; besides that they're not all that pretty. It's well known enough that if you step back maybe a generation or more before that, Bentleys and Rolls Royces can be cheaper to own if their cosmetics are in order, as the mechanicals are simply that of an old American car. Plus, those ones are often better looking. I think user epb had one of these cars and had good things to say about it.

Yeah, but most of those complaints can either be solved with money (good maintenance or a full overhaul) or by not living in a city (having to use an extra wide garage and pay crazy parking and tax).

Quote:

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

The Turbo R's seem immensely fussy and likely expensive to maintain; besides that they're not all that pretty. It's well known enough that if you step back maybe a generation or more before that, Bentleys and Rolls Royces can be cheaper to own if their cosmetics are in order, as the mechanicals are simply that of an old American car. Plus, those ones are often better looking. I think user epb had one of these cars and had good things to say about it.

This is probably true, the only reason I ended up looking at the T-R was because there were 130 of them on Auto trader, and I was on a long and boring conference call. I would probably go for an older Rolls Royce rather than a Bentley, for some reason they just feel a little more... authentic.

I was looking into it briefly and it seems those Turbo R's have robust powertrains but you should still expect to spend like $5K a year on maintenance. My neighbor seems to collect these cars, no idea why these cars specifically given the choices out there. He has a shit ton of cars, maybe has a dealership or something, but he had a new M5 and 760Li but now it's been replaced by a nice RR version of the aforementioned Bentleys, and an old Continental coupe from the late 90's. I think I've seen about 10 different RR's/Bentleys from those old Crewe days rotated through his 3 parking spaces plus that Conti and a Corniche II, but they come back and then go away often, so no idea if he's selling them or what.